RULE FOR THE WISE: VERIFY BEFORE YOU BUY

RULE FOR THE WISE: VERIFY BEFORE YOU BUY. Be wary of those who purport to "train" you to do that which they, themselves, have never done; or sell to you what they do not have. Verify before you buy. Patronize, instead, those sellers and "trainers," exemplars of demonstrated proficiency, who having done it, themselves, now, offer their expertise to you. Distrust a "fighter" who has never fought, a "parenting expert" without a child, a "teacher" who has never taught, a marathoner who's not run a mile, a "leader" without a base; a beauty without a face; a claimant without any proof; a roofer without a roof; a marriage counselor without a spouse; a carpenter without a house; an auto mechanic without a car; a pilot without a plane; a lawyer without a license; a physician without a patient; a banker without a bank, etc. This is a general rule for the wise: verify before you buy!

CHRISTIAN COHESION OF AFRICANS IN AMERICA

Biblical faith and Jesus Christ was the bridge that brought our people over slavery, Jim Crow, illiteracy, and racism; it was also the cohesion that made us a people and a culture from many tongues and tribes. It spawned our music, literature, values, and outlook on life, enabling us to view ourselves as victims like the Hebrew children and the slave masters as "Pharaoh" in a trope of redeeming deliverance, for which agnostic and atheist "mental health professionals" really had and have no answers, being fearful, averse and antagonistic to its healing, annealing power which is accessed primarily by the heart and the soul by feeling and not primarily by the brain and mind by thinking . In 2015, we stand at a paradigmatic crossroads of each, where Bible balance and norms are being frontally challenged by scientific and cultural accretions that test the tenor of Christian religion, morality, and more broadly spirituality as guide and comforter. http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/articles/religion-spirituality-and-mental-health

AMERICA'S MY HOME

When traveling abroad in Africa or in the Caribbean, I was known as, respected as, greeted as, and introduced as, an American. Not a black American. Not an African American. From what I have read in the autobiographies of other American travelers of African descent, the case has been the same, in Europe, Asia, Australia, and in the islands of the seas. Only in America, the land of my birth, and that of my parents, grandparents, great grandparents, and great-great grandparents, am I known as African-American or colored or Negro, or other less honorable names. We were physically here not only before there was any "America," but before there was a "Mayflower," itself. Yet, we remain its hyphenated citizens, denizens in our own land, our homeland! We, sable descendants of indentured servants and slaves, have shaped this country: culturally, politically, economically, spiritually, organically. Why should we step back and allow others to steal our prior birthright, our heritage, our entitlements, indeed, our very name: like Jacob did to Esau for a mess of porridge? Later-coming persons, whether immigrants and emigrants--or other insurgents--are better hyphenated by homelands, than us. We know no other language but English. We pledge no other flag but "Old Glory." We built this country with our brawn, ingenuity, and energy; and preserved it by shedding of blood, sweat, toil and tears. This land is our land! We will not be truncated, hyphenated, stapled to, and stigmatized by, any faction's phobias to a continent--albeit a beautiful and ancient land-- that is magically symbolic of our unknowable ancestors' unknown places of provenance! We are Americans! We have evolved into this consciousness. We do not demand, petition,entreat, nor beg. We assert, reclaim our birthright and its too-long deferred devises. bequests. gifts, grants, rights, hereditaments and appurtenances. As brother James Brown once sung in the 1960's era to the derision of some, including me: "America is my home." And, as I am here to stay, we are here to stay! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=252TrvSPoJg

INSTILLING VALUES

INSTILLING VALUES Installing values in a child does not require education or special classes. Yet, nothing that is later learned in a child's life by them can ever exceed home-trained values' foundational importance. Respecting themselves' and others' : persons, property, time, peace of mind, perspectives, and demanding reciprocal respect by and from others is paramount . It is, in short, "The Golden Rule." Deference to parents, elders, teachers, authorities, in public and in private settings is most commendable in youth. Obedience, diligence, courage, perseverance, confidence, faith, curiosity , sharing, good humor, attentiveness, work, love, and self-control are other important values. Values are foundational in largely determining a child 's growth, development, maturation and contributions to the common good and weal of the present and the future of mankind of earth. Neglecting or slighting these values will produce a wicked, racist, deformed and dangerous menace to society, comparable to a wild beast or a vapid parasite. Pouring forth values by example in thought, word and deed will produce that degree of godliness in men and women intended by God and required by nature.

SANDRA BLAND

Formerly, it was said that a prosecutor could make a grand jury indict a ham sandwich. Of course, charges were filed in Baltimore against six policemen before the case was presented to a grand jury, which later indicted. But, as Michael Brown and Eric Garner plainly reveal, when it comes to police misconduct, the grand jury is dysfunctional, usually, Baltimore being exceptional. In light of the alleged "suicide" in Prairie View, Texas, of the young woman, Sandra Bland, from Chicago, who allegedly made an illegal lane change while in route to a new job at Prairie View A & M, her alma mater, grand juries are back! She was pulled over by local police who were about to ticket her, when she "kicked" him, he says. Audio on a video shows that she states her head was slammed to the ground in a takedown by the police. Later she allegedly commits suicide in jail. The Waller, Texas, prosecutor has announced that he will hand the case over to a grand jury, so that the people may decide what, if any, charges are to be filed. Here we go again?

1 CORINTHIANS 12 (DIVERSITY OF GIFTS)

1 Corinthians 12English Standard Version (ESV) Spiritual Gifts 12 Now concerning[a] spiritual gifts,[b] brothers,[c] I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. 3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit. 4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. One Body with Many Members 12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves[d] or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. 14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts,[e] yet one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.

GRANDER GENEALOGY

THOUGHT EXPERIMENT INVOLVING OUR GRANDER GENEALOGY Our human births, our earthly irruptions , in this space and time are not random, are not accidental, nor whimsical; but each is purposeful and particular. We are, and were, and ever shall be, called forth by God. So too is, or was, all else called forth into their season, their moment, their instant manifestation, to do each especially assigned duty and die. Seamlessly wed yet seemingly different. Our recognition of our singular uniqueness, and of our particular peculiarity is central to our being. Likewise, our oneness is wondrously reinforced in our lives. Our devolution from the Divine defines us, and binds us to a destiny beyond our ken or kin. A grander genealogy is ours than is known, conceived, or that is even accessible by any present means but thought. Even our thought has a governor. We ense. We grasp. We peer through "the glass darkly," inscrutability, hopefully by faith. We search for answers to the awesomeness of us, our existence, ideas. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+13%3A12&version=KJV We aspire. We desire., inspire, respire, attempting to acquire more perfect knowledge of ourselves to all else that is or was or may ever be and the Divine. Yet, even if or when we attain the speed of light, and we have traveled for billions of light- years in myriad directions, in quest of the Divine Source, we shall be no closer to Its quintessence than we are now laved in its infinite love and light. For as each raindrop is known by its name, as each blade of grass or grain of sand has the same family tree as we. Comets and galaxies are near kindred too in our grander genealogy, loving me, and loving you, in and out and passing through. Amen.